1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for judging a probability of collision between a vehicle and another object.
2. Description of the Related Art
In these apparatuses, the probability of collision is judged based on a direction and a distance of the object with respect to the own vehicle. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication Number 2010-18162 discloses a collision judging apparatus in which a probability of collision between the own vehicle and a moving object is determined when the horizontal-direction angle of the moving object with respect to the own vehicle has not changed for a predetermined period and the relative distance of the moving object with respect to the own vehicle becomes smaller with time.
However, the inventor has confirmed by experiments, such that a collision between the own vehicle and the moving object is likely to occur even when the horizontal-direction angle of the moving object with respect to the own vehicle changes with time. Especially, when a margin time of collision between the vehicle and the moving object, i.e., collision margin time TTC (time-to-collision) becomes shorter, location of the horizontal-direction angle with respect to the own vehicle changes easily. Therefore, according to the above-described patent document, it may be difficult to judge the probability of a collision when the collision margin time TTC is shorter.